This invention relates to an apparatus suitable for use in, and to a method of, spacing apart articles, such as brick mouldings, or a row or rows of other brick like articles.
German Patent Specification No. 2,312,946 discloses an apparatus for forming set layers of brick mouldings from rows of brick mouldings which have been pushed onto a support in the form of an initial setting layer comprised of closed transverse and longitudinal rows. The layer is initially raised slightly off the support by a carrying element and moved in the direction of the longitudinal rows until an abutment situated in the path of that movement, contacts the tranverse row which is at the front of the layer, as considered in the direction of movement, and causes at least the rearmost transverse row to be pushed off the opposite side of the carrying element back onto the support. Thereafter, the abutment is moved out of the movement path and the remainder of the layer on the carrying element continues along the movement path until the next predetermined distance between the rearmost transverse row on the carrying element and the transverse row, previously redeposited on the support has been reached. At this point the abutment is again brought into the path of movement to again cause at least the rearmost transverse row on the carrying element to be pushed back onto the support. This process is repeated until all the transverse rows have been pushed back onto the support thereby producing a set layer of brick mouldings with predetermined intervals now formed between the discrete transverse rows or groups thereof.
One disadvantage of this apparatus is that the pushing of the mouldings back onto the support can damage the undersides of sensitive mouldings, especially green or freshly extruded wet mouldings or bricks. Another disadvantage is that because the mouldings are pressed against one another by the abutment the mouldings, particularly wet mouldings, can stick to one another. The apparatus can, therefore, become non-functioning or can provide very inaccurate depositing of mouldings back onto the support.
A further disadvantage is that because the mouldings are pushed over the ends of the carrying element there is a tendency, particularly in the case of thin mouldings, for the mouldings to topple.
Attention is also directed to a copending U.S. patent application Ser. No. 972,718, filed on Dec. 26, 1978, which discloses apparatus for forming a set layer of green bricks which are spaced apart. The apparatus includes, inpart, a roller table that employs driver rollers and two adjacently disposed conveyors each with a narrow belt which can move in the space between two adjacent rollers so that each half of the closed row of bricks can be supported by each conveyor and can be readily lifted off the roller table. After lifting, the conveyors can be moved in opposite directions toward the outside of the table while at the same time be driven in a programmed manner at the same speed in a direction opposite to their outward movement. The conveyor belts are driven so that they unroll from under bricks thereby transferring the bricks back onto the roller table. The drive of each conveyor belt is interrupted in a programmed manner so that as each conveyor is moved outwardly from an initial center position the intermittent driving of the conveyor belts redeposits bricks on the roller table with predetermined spaces therebetween.
A disadvantage of this apparatus is that, as a result of the reversing radius of the narrow belts, narrow brick mouldings cannot be readily transferred by the conveyors to the rollers since narrow brick mouldings tend to topple over the reversing radius. Furthermore, the drive between the narrow belts and the conveyors must be synchronized to move each half of the row in unison and each starting up of the belts is accompanied by a slight starting loss.
Reference is also made to German Patent Specification No. 2,447,341, which also relates to the formation of set layers. Prior to the formation of a compact layer bricks in each longitudinal row are formed into rows each having a specific number of bricks by removing some bricks from the longitudinal row. The predetermined number corresponds to the number of bricks which are to appear in the rows of the reformed set layer. The removed bricks are collected and stored until their number corresponds to the set layers and they are then supplied to the grouping device to form set layers. This device is extremely complex and is quite difficult to adjust and service.